Brandon Johnson has refused to state whether he’ll raise his city’s taxes to pay for the migrant crisis – despite being asked three times in a new interview.

The state had the goal of submitting roughly 11,000 applications for eligible asylum-seekers residing in Chicago shelters by February, according to a Nov. 16 news release from the governor’s office. But Eréndira Rendón, vice president of immigrant justice at Resurrection Project — which spearheaded the program — said only 1,655 people have registered for the program and a few hundred have been approved.

According to city documents, Park Ridge already offers more time off than Cook County requires. Administrative Services Manager Leisa Niemotka said that, under the county’s ordinance, “We could have all of our snowplow crews let the Public Works director know that they are taking 40 hours of leave tomorrow, and we can’t deny that.”

In 2020, Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order to prioritize racial equity in response to the opioid crisis. In 2022, Illinois launched the Overdose Action Plan to increase funding to programs that are working on addressing these issues. But the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office is expected to record about the same number of opioid overdose deaths in 2023 as in 2022, when the county saw a record 2,001 recorded deaths.

“But if the city of Chicago were playing blackjack to buoy its underwater fire and police pension funds, it would be well advised to insure its hand.”

“The Chicago Teachers Union unabashedly joined the chorus, attributing the push to reopen schools to ‘sexism, racism and misogyny.’ They even walked out for five days in 2022 and threatened to walk out in 2021 to protest in-person learning. How convenient for them to now create an alternate history.”

Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Northwestern alumnus, said that anti-Semitism among students and faculty is “well documented,” and that the university must “enforce their own rules and federal law” to combat it.

“I cannot and will not be controlled,” Mayor Tiffany Henyard said.

Other cities faced with local housing crises of their own aren’t waiting to jump aboard the mansion tax train. Nearly 70% of Santa Fe voters approved a tax on residential real estate sales over $1 million in November 2023, with the proceeds earmarked for affordable housing; Chicago voters will have the chance to decide on a similar tax this year. In Seattle, the vast majority of voters approved a broader property tax increase that’s expected to raise nearly $1 billion to support low-income renters over seven years.

The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday saw its issuer rating and debt ratings from Moody’s Investors Service (MCO) upgraded a notch, to Ba1 from Ba2 which is still speculative grade, but one level below investment-grade status.

A spokesperson for Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management reported an additional 4,468 migrants in its total census count of migrants Thursday morning. The total number of asylum-seekers who have come to Chicago since August 2022 was reported as just over 30,000 the day before.

The warming center at the Harold Washington Library at 400 S. State Street opened Saturday evening and is open 24/7 for anyone in need. Migrants awaiting shelter at the landing zone will be transported to this site, according to a release from the mayor’s office.

“It’s going to increase the levels of homelessness in a way that I know the city is not ready for,” said Ald. Andre Vasquez, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The new shelter that opened recently at a shuttered CVS Pharmacy in the Little Village neighborhood was established and bankrolled by the state.

Chicago’s Field Museum has covered displays of cultural artifacts linked to Native tribes following a change in federal regulations issued last month, administered by the U.S. Interior Department, that requires museums to gain consent from tribal leaders before showcasing objects held in their collections that have ties to their ancestral heritage.

At issue in former Portage, IN, Mayor James Snyder’s case is a nuance in the federal bribery statute that makes it illegal to “corruptly” offer something of value to reward a public official for an official act. The high court’s decision to hear Snyder’s case is expected to resolve an entrenched split in the federal circuit courts around the country. Chicago-area defense attorneys have long complained that relatively vague language has been exploited by federal prosecutors to criminalize a wide range of normal political give-and-take, be it a steak dinner or the hiring of a political crony, even when there

The city-run shelter system has been at capacity for months, with 28 buildings currently housing 14,600 migrants. Yet because of fiscal concerns, the prospect of more sites opening in the near future appears dim, with Johnson confirming Friday that there has been a pause in standing up additional shelters since mid-December. He acknowledged the situation at the landing zone was concerning and noted that there are 10 warming buses on the lot Friday, with preparations for additional vehicles in place.